Any list of greatest convention speeches begins and ends with Ronald Reagan. The only question: Which one was better. We give the nod, by just a bit, to his 1980 speech. Addressing GOP delegates in Detroit, Reagan managed to exude optimism and confidence as he shared his conservative vision for America. Meanwhile, he eviscerated President Jimmy Carter for creating “problems that cause pain and destroy the moral fiber of real people.”

“I will not stand by and watch this great country destroy itself under mediocre leadership that drifts from one crisis to the next, eroding our national will and purpose,” the former actor and California governor declared

Highlight: “Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, ‘Well done?’” Reagan asked. “Can anyone compare the state of our economy when the Carter administration took office with where we are today and say, ‘Keep up the good work’?”

The 40th president’s renomination speech in Dallas was a patriotic ode to the spirit of America, the spirit of liberty and freedom, and a warning about the backsliding that would occur if liberal Democrats regained control of the levers of power. On the eve of the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, Reagan inspired chants of “USA, USA” with his tales of athletic heroism and military accomplishment.

Highlight: “We came together in a national crusade to make America great again, and to make a new beginning. Well, now it’s all coming together. With our beloved nation at peace, we’re in the midst of a springtime of hope for America. Greatness lies ahead of us.”

Richard Nixon was not one of the better orators to hold the nation’s highest office, but his 1968 acceptance speech may have been the best speech of his career (other than “Checkers”). It was written poetically to appeal to “the Silent Majority” of Americans discomfited by the turbulent times.

Highlight: “As we look at America, we see cities enveloped in smoke and flame. We hear sirens in the night. We see Americans dying on distant battlefields abroad. We see Americans hating each other; fighting each other; killing each other at home.

“And as we see and hear these things, millions of Americans cry out in anguish. Did we come all this way for this?”

Was Barry Goldwater’s 1964 acceptance speech at the Cow Palace in San Francisco a masterful oration and a manifesto for a generation of young conservatives? Or was it an exercise in extremism that scared voters and led to a catastrophic defeat? The answer is both. But nearly five decades later, it is one of the most quoted and most admired speeches of the mid-twentieth century.

Highlight: “Those who do not care for our cause, we don’t expect to enter our ranks in any case. And let our Republicanism, so focused and so dedicated, not be made fuzzy and futile by unthinking and stupid labels. I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice. And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.”

Don’t think of Thomas Dewey’s collapse in the 1948 general election or Harry Truman’s “give ‘em hell” comeback. The Republican from New York was riding high when he accepted his party’s nomination in Philadelphia. He delivered a stirring acceptance speech — far superior to his 1944 address — that waxed philosophical about America’s place in a post-war world and the stakes to the nation of retreating in the faced of Communist aggression.

Highlight: “We have found the means to blow this world of ours apart, physically. We have not yet found the spiritual means to put together the world’s broken pieces, to bind up its wounds, to make a good society, a community of men of good will that fits our dreams.”

In case there was anybody in the world who didn’t know that Ike was the Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, the Republican presidential nominee reminded them of his heroic service with repeated war metaphors — and some moving stories of conversations with comrades on the eve of battle. He called for a “Republican crusade” to rid the nation of waste and corruption following two decades of nonstop Democratic rule.

Highlight: “Today is the first day of this great battle. The road that leads to Nov. 4 is a fighting road. In that fight I will keep nothing in reserve.”

Democrat Michael Dukakis left the 1988 Democratic National Convention with a double-digit lead over Vice President George Bush. But Bush’s political team refocused the debate on contrasting values — on foreign policy, on values, on patriotism, on crime and punishment, but especially on taxes.” He portrayed the Massachusetts governor as a technocrat and a pessimist who sees “a long, slow decline for our country, an inevitable fall mandated by impersonal historical forces.” By the end of the convention, Bush had grabbed a lead he never relinquished.

Highlight: “My opponent now says, he’ll raise [taxes] as a last resort, or a third resort. But when a politician talks like that, you know that’s one resort he’ll be checking into. My opponent won’t rule out raising taxes. But I will. And the Congress will push me to raise taxes, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push, and I’ll say no, and they’ll push again, and I’ll say, to them, ‘Read my lips: no new taxes.’”

Alf Landon’s acceptance speech sounds like a Romney campaign speech. It reminds voters how a Democratic president had taken office in a terrible economic time and had failed to turn the economy around. It noted that unemployment remained unacceptably high and that activist government was not the answer. The flaw in his address: An alternative vision to the New Deal.

Highlight: “Judged by the things that make us a nation of happy families, the New Deal has fallen far short of success. The proof of this is in the record. The record shows that in 1933 the primary need was jobs for the unemployed. The record shows that in 1936 the primary need still is jobs for the unemployed.”

How do you win a presidential election against the party in power during a time of peace and prosperity. In a well-paced acceptance speech that offered both philosophical and personal contrasts, Texas Gov. George W. Bush said the Democratic administration of Bill Clinton and Al Gore had “coasted through prosperity.” He repeated invoked his mantra, “This administration had its moment. They had their chance. They have not led. We will.”

Highlight: “Today, our high taxes fund a surplus. Some say that growing federal surplus means Washington has more money to spend. But they’ve got it backwards.The surplus is not the government’s money. The surplus is the people’s money.”

The Republican Party in 1940 was taken over by an Indiana businessman and self-professed liberal Democrat who split with President Franklin Roosevelt over increasing government involvement in the U.S. economy. In his acceptance speech, Wendell Willkie noted that “I was a liberal before many of [New Deal] men had heard the word” and he argued that FDR had “distorted” reformist liberalism.

A liberal Democrat captured the Republican nomination in 1940 in an historical oddity.

As the grandson of German immigrants, he also chided Roosevelt for failing to do more to make America competitive with Hitler’s Third Reich. The speech comes at a turning point in American history — squeezed between the end of the New Deal and U.S. involvement in World War II — and it captures the moment powerfully.

Highlight: “Today great institutions of freedom, for which humanity has spilled so much blood, lie in ruins. In Europe those rights of person and property —the civil liberties—which your ancestors fought for, and which you still enjoy, are virtually extinct. And it is my profound conviction that even here in this country, the Democratic Party, under its present leadership, will prove incapable of protecting those liberties of yours.”